Crop Scouts Foretell Another Big Harvest

Crop scouts that fanned out across the Farm Belt this week reported another big corn and soybean harvest in the making, deepening concern over falling prices and incomes in the troubled farm economy.

U.S. farmers will harvest 13.953 billion bushels of corn this year at an average yield of 167.1 bushels per acre, organizers of the Farm Journal Midwest crop tour forecast on Friday, compared to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's forecast of 14.15 billion bushels with a yield of 169.5 bushels per acre. Soybean production is estimated at 4.331 billion bushels with a 48.5 bushel-per-acre yield, below the USDA's estimates.

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Such a haul would add to a global glut of grain that has pushed down crop prices and is expected to drag down U.S. farm incomes in 2017 for the fourth year in a row.

Analysts expected the annual crop tour, which brings together farmers and grain traders from around the world to assess the coming U.S. harvest, to uncover swathes of troubled fields after weeks of tough weather. Parts of the Midwest received too much rain this spring, while parts of the Plains battled a summer drought.

Write to Jesse Newman at jesse.newman@wsj.com and Benjamin Parkin at benjamin.parkin@wsj.com